Ok brumby, I bought the Arduino that is show. Above now I just need to watch some videos in order to figure out how to begin to code the sequential lights. Any good suggestions?
Most Arduinos (genuine and clone) come pre-programmed with the basic "Blink" program already loaded. There is typically an LED right on the Arduino board connected to one of the pins (typically Pin 13). So you should be able to simply apply power to the Arduino board (by one of several methods) see the on-board LED blink around once per second.
That will show that your Arduino is good and your power supply is good, etc. Then you can connect an external LED (with the required current-limiting resistor!) and see how the Arduino will control an external LED. Note that the outputs from the Arduino (and essentially EVERY kind of microcontroller) has VERY limited drive capability and you should never plan on driving more than one LED per output pin.
There is a series of tutorials on the Arduino website:
https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePageAnd here is the tutorial specifically for the "Blink" program:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?action=post;quote=1915997;topic=140954.100Next, you need to get your Arduino board connected to a computer and load the Arduino "Integrated Development Environment" (IDE). There are versions for PC, Mac, and Linux depending on which computer you are using. It looks like there is also an online version, but I have no idea how it works. I will go and research it. There are probably some YT videos on the subject.
The typical starter steps are to take the "Blink" program (Arduino calls it a "sketch"), make some slight change (like changing the blink sequence and/or timing) and try loading your new code into the Arduino to confirm that the development system is working and you are able to load your new code into the Arduino.
When you have that sorted out, you can start experimenting with the code to blink multiple LEDs which is a simplified subset of your ultimate goal, to blink many LEDs.
But then, along with gearing up to write and upload code into the Arduino, you need to also think about the issue of driving more and/or brighter LEDs from the Arduino output pins. This is typically done with some external transistors which will take the weak, limited signal out of the Arduino, and boosts it to switch perhaps several amps as you would need for a large array of LEDs, etc. Your kit probably includes some transistors that will allow you to demonstrate this circuit.
So you can try out your Arduino by simply applying power to see the LED blink. But then you need to work on your programming setup (whether downloaded or the online-version.) Did your kit come with any kind of instructions or lessons/experiments, etc?
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